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User blog:Pinkguy the b0ss/Sonic CD Review
What's up nibbas, it's me again. And now, I'm doing something I haven't done for months - review another Sonic game. It's about time, right? This time, our subject is Sonic CD. As Mario would say, let's a go. Before I begin, I feel as though I need to establish some context. For those who don't know, the Sonic the Hedgehog series was quite a big deal in the mid-1990s. After the immense success of the first game on the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive outside of North America), released in 1991, Sega, a company who previously struggled to find a flagship mascot, knew they had a winner. They immediately started planning development on a sequel to the game. However, things were about to get complicated. Sega of America and Sega of Japan both had conflicting ideas as to what they should do with the blue blur next. Therefore, two seperate games were developed - a Genesis game that became Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and a game for the upcoming Sega Mega CD (also known as the Sega CD in North America), an add-on for the Genesis that played disc-based games. After a rocky, rushed development cycle, Sonic 2 was released in 1992 and went on to become a system seller for the Genesis. That same year, the Sega CD was released. Initially, the system was a modest success, so Sega of Japan pushed forward with the development of their Sonic game, titled CD Sonic the Hedgehog.... yeah that title sucks balls. I'm glad it didn't stick. The title was soon changed to Sonic the Hedgehog CD, and the game was completed and released in 1993, and it featured an interesting time travel mechanic. Unfortunately, it experienced lackluster sales, as Sega CD sales were quickly on the decline, but reviews were still strongly in the game's favor. Years later, Sonic CD was considered a diamond in the rough - a hidden Sega CD gem of sorts. Many actually considered it the greatest Sonic game ever made. Eventually, though, the game became more widely available through the Sonic Gems Collection on Gamecube and the highly acclaimed Taxman & Stealth remake in 2011, and with that, public opinion began to shift. What was once considered one of the greatest Sonic games of all time now has more mixed opinions coming from the fans. This transitions me well into the main point of this post - my own thoughts on the game. Before I begin, I unfortunately had to play this on an emulator, as the Sega CD is simply way too expensive for not many worthwhile games. I'm normally committed to playing games on original hardware, but for this time, I have to make an exception. Anyways, enough with the padding. On to my thoughts on Sonic CD - do I think it's the best 2D Sonic game ever made like some would suggest, or do I disagree completely? Let's find out. Story This game has the same basic plot as the others, but it's slightly more complicated. Slightly. The time, Dr. Robotnik has chained a mythical small planet called "Little Planet" to the bottom of a lake, and plans to use it for world domination with the seven Time Stones, this game's Chaos Emerald equivalent. Sonic shows up to the planet, and finds it stuck over a lake. Once he finds out that Robotnik was behind it, he immediately runs up a chain to the island and begins to search for him. He comes across a pink female hedgehog named Amy Rose, who immediately falls in love with Sonic. However, she gets kidnapped by Metal Sonic, another robotic Sonic made by Robotnik. Sonic realizes that Robotnik is using the planet's Time Stones for his own purposes, so he sets out to collect them, defeat Robotnik and Metal Sonic, save Amy Rose, and release Little Planet. Not an amazing story, but I'd say it gets the job done for what it is. Graphics This game has pretty good graphics for the time, but to be honest... I don't find them all that appealing. Allow me to explain. I genuinely do enjoy bright, colorful visuals in my platforming games, but Sonic CD takes that way too far. It's so colorful that it ends up feeling like a drug trip. Also, while the levels do have interesting aesthetics, most have the same themes as Sonic 1 - the grassy hills area, the underwater ruins, the factory area, etc. I'm not one to get motion sickness, but looking at this game makes me feel... weird, almost a little bit dizzy. It doesn't come anywhere close to ruining the game, but I thought I would just mention that. It looks interesting, I'll give it that - it's way more surreal than all of the other 2D Sonic games at the time. Still, Sonic 1, Sonic 2, and especially Sonic 3&K are way easier on my eyes. Soundtrack This game has a pretty good soundtrack.... or, should I say, soundtrack''s. Yeah, that's right. Sonic CD features two seperate soundtracks - one for Japan and Europe, and a redone OST for North America. Both are great and feature some pretty damn good compositions. As for which I prefer, I'm not too sure. The fanbase overwhelmingly prefers the Japanese-European soundtrack, and I can see why, but the American soundtrack is just as great if not better. I prefer tracks from each soundtrack. For instance, the Palmtree Panic themes in the US version are way better than the Japanese version, but the Japanese version features the superior Stardust Speedway tracks. The Past themes are identical in both soundtracks (because they use the Genesis soundchip rather than redbook audio), and they all sound great as well. Whatever the case, I like both soundtracks, but neither is as good as the other classic Sonic games. Gameplay Finally, I've reached the most important part of this review, the gameplay. As good as the graphics and soundtrack(s) may be, is there a game to back them up? I would say that there is... for the most part. Overall, Sonic CD is designed well and is fairly enjoyable, but it isn't all that amazing. Starting with the controls. In short, they're just as solid as the other classic Sonic games. The physics are smooth, the movement and jumping are responsive and feel just right, and of course, the brilliant momentum mechanic that's a staple of 2D Sonic works just as well as the other games. One thing that feels wrong, though, has to be the spindash. It was shoehorned in after Sega of Japan found out about it being added to Sonic 2, and it feels like it. Instead of the control from every other 2D Sonic game - crouching and then mashing the jump button, this game requires you to hold down the jump button after crouching to charge up the spindash and then release the button when it's fully charged. It sounds fine in concept, but the thing takes a little bit too long to charge up for my tastes. Thankfully, there's another move - the Super Peel-Out. It requires you to hold up instead of down, and it charges up way faster than the spindash. However, it does leave you open to attack, as Sonic doesn't roll into a ball, so pick your poison. Nonetheless, this game still controls very well. Now, to discuss the biggest point of contention regarding this game - the overall structure, and of course, the level design. The game is fairly standard in structure for a Sonic game - a few zones with a few levels each. However it does shake it up a bit. It's closest to Sonic 1, as it features three acts per zone. However, the first two acts are full-length levels, whereas the third act is a short stage meant primarily as a dedicated boss level. There's also past, bad future, and good future versions of each stage, but these are only required for one of two methods to achieve 100% completion. Overall, it's a decent structure, but I still prefer the system from Sonic 3 & Knuckles - two acts per zone with a miniboss at the end of Act 1 and a Robotnik fight at the end of Act 2, but it's still a little better than the three full-length acts per zone in Sonic 1. Now for the moment you've all been waiting for - the part where I give my opinion about this game's biggest point of contention - the level design. Opinions of this are all over the map, but it seems that the popular opinion is that the game's level design isn't as good as Sonic 3&K, Sonic 1, and especially Sonic 2. As for me... Yeah, I can see where the fans are coming from. The level design is in a two-forked dilemma - it's too simple to truly please non-completionists, but too bloated to really please completionists. It's a somewhat complicated issue which I'll further elaborate on in the difficulty section, but suffice it to say that Sonic CD isn't quite as good as the other games level design-wise. Let's do that, shall we? Difficulty Overall, Sonic CD can either be pretty annoying or very easy. But before I discuss that, I'll mention some improvements that this game makes over the first two. For one, it includes a save feature, and it works exactly like Sonic 3&K - it saves up to the beginning of each zone. If you get a game over, you have to start the zone from the beginning. Just how I like it. This is a substantial improvement over Sonic 1 and 2, which had limited continues and no save or password feature. That doesn't bother me as much as it used to in those games, but this game's system is still an improvement. However, this addition doesn't matter all that much, as this is by far the easiest game in the classic series.... if you avoid 100% completion. For that, you have two options - you can either go to the past versions of each level to take out Robotnik's roboticizer machines, or reach the end of a stage with 50 rings to enter a special stage (like Sonic 1). However, both methods are fairly annoying and not worth your time. The levels are way too open-ended for this to truly work, and the roboticizers are hidden way too well, making them tedious to track down. The special stages are also pretty clunky, featuring a choppy framerate and slippery controls. I'm not usually one to go for full completion in 2D sidescrollers, unless I truly feel compelled to do so, and it's obvious I didn't go for it in this case. After all, all you get is a slightly different end cutscene. Everything is fine and dandy then, right? Well, not really. If you don't do this, most levels can be cleared in less than four minutes without a single death. The game's platforming is also fairly easy. Another improvement from the previous games is that the camera pans to the right when you run at full speed. However, that doesn't happen all that often, and the camera wasn't that bad in the other games to begin with, so this isn't a major improvement. Most of the levels are also on the easy side anyway, like I said, further making this improvement somewhat unneccessary. To be honest, most of this game is even easier than New Super Mario Bros. if you beat it this way. Despite this relatively simple gameplay, though, some levels can be somewhat annoying. They mostly arrive at the end of the game, where the levels get pretty lengthy and very mazelike. Wacky Workbench and Stardust Speedway in particular are very hard to navigate, with WWZ's bouncy floor and SSZ's multiple branching paths that intertwine and intersect in completely sporadic places that make no sense. Metallic Madness Zone can also be mazey, but not quite as much as Stardust Speedway. None of these levels are bad per se, but they're not particularly great either. The bosses, on the other hand, are some of the best and most creative from the classic series. None of them are all that hard, but neither are most of the bosses from the other games. Highlights include the fights from Tidal Tempest Zone, Wacky Workbench Zone, and Stardust Speedway Zone. TTZ's boss takes place underwater with Robotnik's eggmobile surrounded by air bubbles. You have to collect most of the bubbles while avoiding his projectiles. WWZ features a platforming-based boss where you have to avoid falling stage hazards and timing your jumps on them when they shoot up towards a higher platform in order to hit Robotnik. Perhaps my favorite, however, is the boss from Stardust Speedway. You all know what I'm talking about - the Metal Sonic race. Robotnik follows you with an instant-kill death lazer. In order to escape him, you have to beat Metal Sonic to the end of a dangerous spike-infested raceway. It's by far the hardest boss in the game, and I think it was a lot of fun. It's also the most original boss in the whole classic series - for how speed-focused this series is, I'm surprised at how this is the only boss focused on racing an enemy from any of the classic games. While Sonic 3&K definitely had the overall better boss fights, I appreciate Sonic CD for its willingness to experiment with boss design. Overall, this game is probably the most accessible of the four classic Sonic games due to its sheer ease compared to the others, which isn't neccessarily a bad thing. However, I would have liked it if they made the Any% experience at least a little more challenging. Conclusion Overall, Sonic CD is a good game, but it's not quite as good as many other sidescrollers from the era. The controls, soundtracks, and boss fights are some of the best that classic Sonic has to offer. However, the graphics are so overly colorful that they're sort of painful to look at, and as good as the OSTs are, they don't come close to topping Sonic 1, Sonic 2, and ''especially ''the godliness of Sonic 3&K. But, most of all, the level design is lacking in substance in the Any% experience, and is way too complicated for its own good if you go after the 100% experience. There's a reason why this kind of level design is called the "Sonic CD dilemma" by some people, as this game is the most well-known instance of it. With that said, would I recommend this game? It may seem like I didn't care for this game all that much, but that's not the case at all. I would recommend Sonic CD, especially if you liked the other Sonic games or are looking to get into retro 2D platforming games. This could serve as a good introduction to the 2D Sonic series for inexperienced gamers, or a good game to practice for the others if you find them too tough. Still, I would recommend you play the other Sonic games or a number of other sidescrollers first simply because there's more meat on their bones. If you are going to play this game, do ''not buy a Sega CD for it unless you're a diehard collector. They often go for well over $100, require already owning a Sega Genesis, and it has its own AC adapter. This isn't even factoring in the price of the game itself, which can go for anywhere from $50-$80 due to its sheer rarity. Instead, either emulate the game, get Sonic Gems Collection, or better yet, play the Taxman & Stealth remake for PC through Steam or iOs and Android. It features various improvements, not least of which is HD widescreen. Still, the fundamental level design make this my least favorite classic Sonic game, but the fact that the game remains so enjoyable in spite of its flaws should stand as a testament to how good it really is. I'd say check it out. As for what comes next, let's just say I'm not quite done with a certain blue hedgehog just yet. I've recently branched off into Sega collecting beyond the Genesis and purchased a Sega Dreamcast. Along with it, I of course picked up what are arguably its most well-known games - Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. I also got Rayman 2, which is another series I've been meaning to try for myself. I could have picked up the Gamecube versions of both SA1 and SA2, since I already owned a Gamecube, but I've desired to get a Dreamcast for a while now considering how many people rave about it. I prefer playing games on their original hardware, like I said at the beginning of this review, and since the Dreamcast is relatively inexpensive at only $70-$80 I went for it. I've heard plenty of various opinions on both games, with the likes of SomeCallMeJohnny arguing that SA1 is pretty good and SA2 kind of sucks in comparison, ExoParadigmGamer and the Great Clement arguing that SA2 is better, and others like ProJared saying that both, especially the second game, are terrible. Still many more Sonic fans are either indifferent, or on the positive or negative side. As for me, my expectations are soaring, and I'm pretty excited to play both games, but I'm not setting them to an unreasonably high degree. These will be my first 3D Sonic games, and after them, I'm planning to play Sonic Colors, Sonic Generations, and if I'm still willing to look into the series further after them, I'll pick up Sonic Heroes and both versions of Sonic Unleashed. All I'll say is that I'm sure as hell not ever touching the storybook games (Black Knight and Secret Rings), Rise of Lyric, and especially not Sonic '06, unless I really get curious about them. I think I'll save my sanity by doing so. Overall, I love this series so far, I'm more than willing to look further into it, and I'm excited to see what the Adventure games in particular have to offer. Apart from Sonic, I will eventually get to the PS2 Ratchet & Clank games, the PS1 Crash Bandicoot games, Earthworm Jim 1 and 2, the first Spyro game, Rayman 2, Pac-Man World 1 and 2, Super Castlevania IV, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Banjo-Tooie, the original SNES Starfox, and various Mario Kart games. I also want to get into the Mega Man and Kirby series at some point, and I'm thinking about trying out the Sly Cooper trilogy, the Jak & Daxter games, and Celeste, which I've heard are all good. Maybe I'll even get to the Pokemon and Lego Batman games one day, as they're big parts of my childhood and I've been feeling strangely compelled to revisit them. For now, however, I want to focus on the Sonic Adventure games, so I'm not gonna play those games until I'm done with those. I might end up reviewing SA2 first, because I might end up finishing it first. YIKES, that was a long conclusion. In any event, I'll see you next time.... if anyone even reads these reviews. Category:Blog posts